The Width Of Living

It's a curious thing
This life, this slow demise
Across years and turning skies.
All that keeps us
From the one-way trip
The distance from your lip
To my lip; the thickness of a kiss
Between a fragile life and the abyss.

So intricate and wings so lightly crushed
The millions of flutters in a heart
So barely there and yet, the pulse could start
A family tree, cathedrals of the mind...
Possibilities that fate so near declined.

A breath is such a tiny force
Near soundless voice from birth
Lost in canyons of time and massive Earth
The smallest stirring in the Universe's hair
Particles roll over, supernovas unmoved by our air.

But such will be the impact when you cease to breath
Creation will, for me, have lost its breath
No giant stars will wonder at your death
Nor more than just a roomful even grieve.
But somehow this will strip the mountain air
Of oxygen enough to make me blue
For there's no finer oxygen than minutes spent with you
And I would wither, breathless with despair.